Terra Collection Initiative: Winslow Homer: Poet of Sea

The first Homer retrospective organized in Europe, Winslow Homer: Poet of the Sea introduced audiences to one of America’s most treasured artists. Co-organized by the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny / Terra Foundation for American Art and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, the exhibition proved extremely popular: close to 90,000 visitors saw the show. +

Though best known for his Civil War and genre scenes, Homer was perhaps at his most magical when capturing water, whether in oil or watercolor. The exhibition was a focused examination of Homer’s distinctive works in which this element dominates. The sixty-seven works of art, which spanned his career and included such masterworks as The Life Line and The Fox Hunt, demonstrated the freshness of Homer’s approach, his inventiveness, and the underlying emotional and psychological complexity of his images. The exhibition also reevaluated Homer’s art, going beyond the context of American realism, to reveal his original and distinctly modern vision.

Divided into five sections by geographical location, the exhibition confirmed Homer’s extraordinary ability to adapt his style and technique to the environment and quintessential landscape of Gloucester, Massachusetts; Cullercoats, England; Prout’s Neck, Maine; the Bahamas; and the Adirondacks.